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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

MAHB 3Q earnings up 74% to RM108m

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) earnings rose 74.1% to RM108.18 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2011 from RM62.11 million a year ago, boosted by higher contributions to airport operations and higher passenger movements.

In a statement on Tuesday, Oct 25,'' MAHB said revenue rose 4.6% to RM652.83 million from RM623.78 million a year ago.'' Earnings per share improved to 9.83 sen for 3Q11 from 5.65 sen a year ago.

"The improved revenue was mainly attributed to the effects of adopting IC 12 which resulted in recognition of CONSTRUCTION [] revenue in relation to the construction of KLIA2 and expansion of Penang International Airport in the current quarter and financial period-to-date of RM169.1 million and RM506.2 million respectively as compared to the amount recognised in the same period previous year of RM177.5 million and RM328.9 million respectively," it said.

Once construction revenue was stripped out, the improvement in revenue for the current quarter under review was due to a 7.4% growth in airport operations, driven by an increase in non-aeronautical revenue of 15.6%, mostly derived from the group's retail business.

However, MAHB said its airport operations revenue was impacted by airline incentives accrued in the financial period to date. It said RM90.0 million wouldl be given out in the current financial year compared to RM27.7 million a year ago.

"The airline incentives were granted to eligible airlines under the Airlines Recovery Program (ARP) announced on Nov 18, ember 2009 and effective for three years ending Dec 31, 2011," it added.

Passenger movements for the quarter was 10.8% higher compared to a year ago, in which the international and domestic passenger movements increased by 9.8% and 11.6% respectively.

MAHB said was it optimistic that overall passenger traffic at its airports would remain positive in 2011. "The expected future GDP growth as well as increases in tourism and consumer spending in these markets will provide positive support to the group's operational and growth objectives," it added.

However, MAHB pointed out that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has recently estimated a 5.9% world passenger traffic growth for 2011, an upward revision from an earlier forecast of 4.4% in June.

However, MAHB said the temporary improvement in passenger demand was unexpected and may not be expected to continue beyond the short term due to the growing likelihood of a protracted period of slow growth in the developed economies.

IATA had also forecast cargo growth at 1.4 % from the earlier 5.5 %. On this, MAHB said the significant reduction in cargo growth revision reflected a slowing worldwide economy.

'Nevertheless, to date the overall impact of these factors to MAHB have been relatively low and at this juncture MAHB is optimistic that the overall passenger traffic performance at the airports operated by the group will remain positive in 2011,' it said.